Studies in the Linguistic Sciences Volume 30, Number 2 (Fall 2000)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...

[page] 161
"Although lexical borrowing has always been a central topic in linguistic research, its study has suffered from three major limitations: (1) it has failed to consider social variations in patterns of borrowings;
(2) it has assumed a model of two languages in contact; (3) researchers collect data mostly from communities regardless of the social strata, the political and cultural motivations of the subjects, and conclusions
are generalized to the whole community (Deroy 1956, Haugen 1956, Calvet 1974, Benthahila & Davis 1983, etc.). Thus,these studies on lexical borrowing miss the fact that loanwords also reflect the unbalanced distribution of power and prestige in speech communities, especially in multilingual communities. This study challenges these assumptions by showing that lexical borrowing acts as social-group and class indices in Senegal, a socially diverse multilingual community in which lexical borrowings and phonological processes that accompany them are often socially conditioned. In so doing, this paper shows that linguistic patterns used to define social groups or classes generally referred to as sociolinguistic variables in the variationist framework (Labov 1978) are not exclusively limited to phonological patterns, but include larger segmental units, such as lexical units. This study is based on 145 loanwords collected from the Senegalese audiovisual website 'www.homeviewsenegal.com' over a period of three hours, of which 66 words were borrowed from French, 57 from Arabic, 17 from English into Wolof, and 5 from Wolof into French...

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Senegal occupied a central place in the colonization of West Africa, as the capital of Afnque Occidentale Francaise (A.O.F ) 'French West Africa' was established in Saint-Louis. Although some lexical units were coined in Wolof and other local languages to cover new concepts brought into the country by the French, many lexical items were borrowed from French to account for constructs that came along with the advent of French culture, political system, and religion in Senegal, or for purely prestige reasons. The Arabic influence in Senegal dates back to the Islami1zation of West Africa between the 11th and the 16th century. By the 14th century, Koranic schools (Islamic schools) were established in Senegal, and most Senegalese Muslims especially in the region of Saint-Louis) were already able to use classical Arabic scripts to write their own languages by the first half of the twentieth century, especially Wolof and Pulaar (Diop 1989). The English influ- ence is conveyed through American youth culture, the media, TV, and the Ameri- can movie industry. Lexical borrowings from Pulaar (the only local language in competition with Wolof) are mainly found among the youth. These lexical bor- rowings are due to the rising prestige of Pulaar in the 1990s. Pulaar lexical bor- rowings in Wolof are the result of the Haal-Pulaar (Pulaar speakers) cultural movement for the revitalization of Pulaar culture, language, and customs in Senegal (especially in the region of Saint-Louis, the hometown of most Pulaar speakers in the country). The Pulaar linguist Yero Sylla, Pulaar cultural associations (such
as Kawral and Gandal e Pinal), and the Pulaar musician Baaba Maal, helped spread the movement. The primary goal of this movement was to resist the Wolof expansion in Senegal and assert a Pulaar identity, language, and culture.

3. Borrowing as evidence of the unequal distribution of power and prestige

The unequal distribution of power and prestige in speech communities is generally reflected through the rate of loans that one language gives to the other. For instance, in former French colonies of West Africa, the high rate of lexical borrowings from French into local languages represents the surface trace of the French linguistic superstructure imposed in the local communities as the result of French glottophagia (Calvet 1974:92). In contrast, the relative statistical equilibrium of borrowings between English and French (despite the ongoing French lin guistic protectionism against American English) shows the extent to which the two languages (therefore the two communities) are 'equal', i.e., they do not entertain relationships of domination (Calvet 1974:91). In contrast, in the former. French colonies in Africa such as Senegal, French borrows almost nothing from the local languages, whereas those languages borrow extensively from French. This statistical disequilibrium is evidence of the domination of the local communities by France (Calvet 1974: 91). This is partly due to the fact that colonization did not introduce French in former colonies so that the colonized people speak French, but rather it created a minority French-speaking group to govern and im- pose the law on the non-Francophone majority (Calvet 1974:118).

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Thus, as the result of colonization, most African languages whose people were dominated borrowed quantum words from languages of the dominant Europeans, either to fill a lexical gap, or in an attempt to acquire the prestige associated with them, or both. For this reason, Wolof has borrowed copiously from French, while French has only borrowed a few words from Wolof. Similarly, due to the high number of Muslims in Senegal as the result of the early Islamization of the country, Wolof has borrowed many words from Arabic. In contrast, unlike what would be expected due to the role of the United States in the world today, the English influence in Senegal is minor. This is partly due to the fact that the American influence in Senegal is very recent. Figure 1, based on loanwords col- lected from the Senegalese audiovisual website, illustrates the unequal distribu- tion of power and prestige expressed through lexical borrowing, as it shows that all three languages (French, Arabic, English) lend more words to Wolof than they borrow from it...

borrowings from French into Wolof generally fall in the areas of politics, media, institutions, and culture while those from Arabic are mostly found in religious settings. The English influence is almost exclusively limited to youth exposed to American youth culture, music, TV, and movie industry, who dream of traveling to the United States. For this reason, English words used in this study were exclusively found among urban youth.

It is important to note that, although English has been introduced into the educational system, since the 1960s (as a result of the growing cooperation between Senegal, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other English speaking countries of the world), its influence is still minimal, compared to French and Arabic....

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8. Lexical borrowings as markers of modernity and fashion among urban youth
Urban youth in Senegal have the most complex linguistic repertoire in the country. This is due to their exposure to French influence (through education), Arabic influence (through Koranic or Arabic language instruction), and English (through music, TV, and movies). In opposition to other social groups in the country, this social group is the only one that borrows words from Pulaar (the second major national language) and English. However, lexical borrowings from Pulaar are minimal in comparison to those borrowed from French, Arabic, and English respectively. The borrowings from Pulaar result from the growing prestige of Pulaar in Senegal promoted by Pulaar musicians, cultural organizations, and scholars in the 1990s. This group is characterized by particular lexical borrowings (from French, Arabic, and English) and linguistic patterns that act as markers of group membership. In other words, the use of such lexical borrowings and linguistic patterns mark one as ‘trendy, modern, and in-fashion’ and thus sets the speaker apart from the ‘hicks’ (i.e. the rural youngsters with little or no exposure to the urban youth culture. models, ideals, and way of life). The most common linguistic patterns of this group are the following (1) syllable truncation (deletion) of French loans (2) overuse of the French filler quoi at the end of syntactic units (3) phonological hypercorrection, and (4) semantic shifts and specifications...

It is important to note that, the French borrowed word guerrier ‘warrior’ and artiste ‘artist’ and the Arabic lexical borrowing saaba are interchangeably used to refer to someone trendy and admirable in this social group....

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Table 9 Marks of ‘trendiness’ among urban youth
French Loans
(a) [tons] from French [toto] ‘uncle’ truncation
(b) [Presi] from French [presida’] ‘president’ truncation
(c) [kwa] from French [kwa] called quoi ponctuant, a filler with no semantic meaning in French
(d) Biddiwudakar from calque from French l’etiole de Dakar ‘the star of Dakar
(e) Guerrier ‘cool guy’ from French Guerrier ‘warrior’ (semantic shift)
(f) Artiste ‘cool guy’ from French artiste ‘artist’ (semantic shift)

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"Abstract. Senegal is a West African French-speaking country. Officially, the country has 6 major national languages: Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Joola, Seereer, and Soninke. Of these 6 languages, Wolof is the major lingua franca used by over 70% of the population.

As a former French colony, French remains the official language of the country used in the administration and in the public education system. Because over 90% of the Senegalese people are Muslim, the Arabic influence in the country is considerable. Furthermore, the global impact of American youth culture, mass media, the Internet, and the significant number of Senegalese immigrants living in the United States have resulted in the growing influence of American English in the country. The study of loanwords in Senegal (where language contact phenomena between African and non-African languages is the norm) shows that loanwords do not occur arbitrarily. In such a multilingual speech community, loanwords are often triggered and constrained by various cultural, political, religious and social forces that operate or have once operated in the speech community. Consequently,

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the study of loanwords provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the past and current socio-cultural dynamics in the country. This paper provides an overview of French, Arabic and English loanwords in Wolof and examines their general linguistic traits and their sociolinguistic significance in the country.

1. Introduction
Loanwords reflect in many ways the impact of French colonization, Islamization, globalization (or Americanization) and the synchronic social structure of the Senegalese speech community. While some loanwords are understood and used by the entire speech community regardless of people’s social group, or religion, not all loanwords are used by all members of the speech community. In fact, some loanwords are restricted to particular social groups in the country due to the social value, prestige or stigma associated with them. Consequently, Wolof speakers are often selective in their use of loanwords.

Moreover, linguistic incorporation processes (phonological, morphological, and semantic) of loanwords into Wolof also reflect the social stratification of the Senegalese speech community. Because Senegal is a country where Arabic, European and African cultures, religions and ideologies regularly interact, some groups are
more exposed to certain foreign influences than others for particular social or religious reasons. For instance, Arabic words are equated with the knowledge of Islam and are used by some people to display their religious knowledge, which is highly respected in the country. In contrast, English words are considered to be features of the language of the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youth who use them to display their
so-called ‘modernity’.

The lexical repertoire of the urban youth is more complex than that of any other social group in the speech community due to young people’s exposure to many languages and cultures, including Wolof, French, Arabic, and English. The main reasons why young people are exposed to these languages are: 1) Wolof is the major lingua
franca in urban areas, 2) French is the language of instruction in public schools, 3) children generally attend Koranic school prior to public school, and 5) the growing influence of American youth culture (especially rap and hip-hop) and movie industry which have generated a ‘love’ for English words among younger people in urban areas across the country.

Loanwords shared by the entire speech community are usually those that are fully incorporated into the Wolof linguistic system. In other words, foreign words that are used by all social groups in the speech community are those that native Wolof speakers cannot distinguish from actual Wolof words, because they have been in Wolof for so long that they have lost their original foreign linguistic traits and prestige. While some
foreign words are borrowed primarily because Wolof speakers do not have equivalent words, others are borrowed despite the existence of Wolof synonyms, because of the social prestige associated with them.

Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community...
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The types of linguistic (phonological, morphological, or semantic) processes involved in borrowings are generally different from one social group or age group to another... Loanwords in Senegal generally fall in the following categories:
1) unintegrated, partially integrated, and fully integrated loans,
2) hybrid and monolingual lexicalized loans.
3). Unincorporated, partially incorporated and fully incorporated loans

Loanwords typically undergo three phases:
1) Initial borrowing of the new word,
2) partial integration of the loanword in the borrowing language, and
3) full integration in the borrowing language

...Loanwords and the linguistic incorporation processes that accompany them also reflect the social
stratification of the Senegalese speech community because of their particular historical, religious, social or cultural meanings. Thus, some social groups use new loanwords, while others use partially integrated loans or fully integrated loans for different reasons...

The long contact between French, Arabic and English and Wolof has created two major varieties of Wolof in Senegal: urban Wolof, especially used in cities and rural Wolof mostly used in the countryside. While both urban and rural Wolof have been

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influenced by Arabic (as the majority of the population are Muslim), urban Wolof significantly diverged from the more conservative rural variety by incorporating massive French loanwords (McLaughlin, 2001: 161). This is consistent with Swigart’s (1994) claim that urban Wolof refers to a wide range of linguistic forms that are commonly used in major urban areas in Senegal, and that it is primarily characterized by extensive borrowings from French. With respect to English loanwords, their presence is generally limited in Wolof, and they are primarily found in the speech of urban youngsters.

Unincorporated French and Arabic loanwords are typically used by people exposed to standard French and Arabic. These words are generally used by those who want to mark themselves as members of the educated elite. Consequently, Wolof speakers who use unincorporated French loanwords with the metropolitan French uvular fricative [ʁ] are often attempting to underscore their educated status and ‘modernism’, and thus to differentiate themselves from their so-called ‘less modern’ fellow countrymen. Because French is the official language of the country, it has always had a prestigious status because it is perceived as the language of socioeconomic mobility. Thus, some urban Wolof speakers and Senegalese expatriates from France often overuse
the French uvular fricative [ʁ] in their loanwords in order to highlight their so-called ‘modernity’ and to have access to the social prestige associated with standard French. Interestingly, members of other social groups generally consider such speakers to be victim of ‘French assimilation and acculturation’ and to have lost their traditional African cultural and moral values.

Wolof speakers who generally use unincorporated Arabic loanwords are people who have some formal education in standard Arabic or Islamic studies. Thus, the regular use of unincorporated Arabic loanwords often highlights the speaker’s special education in Arabic which is equated with the knowledge of Islam. Because Islam is
the religion of over 90% of the population of Senegal, using unincorporated Arabic loanwords is highly respected in the speech community. Consequently, the more one uses the standard Arabic phonological features, the more one acquires the respect and prestige granted to religious scholars.

Unincorporated English loanwords in Wolof are generally used by the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youngsters exposed to American youth culture, rap, movies and mass media. The limited formal education in English through the public education system that most urban youngsters have and the overwhelming presence of Internet cybercafés across the country have accelerated the diffusion of English loanwords among urban youngsters. The use of unincorporated English loans among urban youngsters has become a marker of being ‘in-fashioned, modern and sophisticated’. However, the use of such English loanwords is stigmatized outside the social
group of urban youngsters, particularly among older people. Older people consider the use of such English words to be evidence of the ongoing degradation of the traditional cultural values of urban youngsters. Thus, to many older people in Senegal, the regular use of such English loanwords may signal ‘untrustworthiness’ and loss of the long-established values such as the respect of elders, honoring and taking

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care of one’s parents in their old ages etc. This is because, older people associate English loanwords used with ‘gangster and raper speech’ which they consider to be disrespectful and inconsistent with the expected linguistic and cultural behaviors of decent Senegalese youngsters. Consequently, the less a younger person uses English loanwords in his/her Wolof, the more s/he will be accepted in the social group of older people, and the more s/he uses English loanwords, the more likely s/he will be rejected from their group. Because of the religious prestige associated with Arabic loanwords, using Arabic loans is often the best way to gain trust and acceptance into the social group of the older people, particularly in rural areas.

The majority of Wolof speakers regularly use partially incorporated and incorporated French loans in their speech regularly. Those who use more partially incorporated loans (less influence of Wolof) are often more educated than those who only use fully incorporated loans which have completely lost their standard French features. Wolof does not accept consonant clusters (such as ‘gr’, ‘kr’, ‘pl’ etc.) at syllable onset
positions. Consequently, onsets with such clusters are typically simplified (broken) by uneducated speakers to respect Wolof preferred CV syllable structure. Similarly, all standard French vowels and consonants which do not exist in Wolof (such as [y], [ ], nasal vowels etc.) are generally replaced by their closest Wolof counterparts in the speech of people with limited or no education in French. Paradis & Lacharité (1997: 9) refer to these incorporation processes as repair strategies. Unlike unincorporated loans, fully incorporated French loanwords have generally no social prestige. This is because the initial critical standard French features in the loanwords are typically replaced by the phonological traits of Wolof as the words continue to be used by uneducated people.

Similarly, partially incorporated Arabic loans are used by people with limited education in Arabic and Islamic studies and fully incorporated loans are used by most Wolof speakers. While partly incorporated loans do carry some limited religious prestige because of the few standard Arabic features they contain, fully incorporated Arabic loans into Wolof do not exhibit such prestige. This is because they have lost all the noticeable standard Arabic features. In the long run, most French and Arabic loanwords become lehnwörter (fully incorporated loans) into Wolof to the extent that most monolingual Wolof speakers cannot tell whether they are French, Arabic or Wolof words. This is consistent with McLaughlin’s (2001: 162) claim that speakers of urban Wolof vary in their ability to recognize French influences in their language, and that speakers who are fluent in French recognize and even joke about French loans in Wolof, but those who know no French are frequently oblivious to its influences in their own speech. This is consonant with Sankoff’s (2001: 9) claim that the longer the loanword has been introduced into the borrowing language, the more likely the
pronunciation is to have been nativized.

With respect to English loanwords, it is important to note that they are mostly restricted to the social group of younger people. Partially incorporated English loans are used by younger people with some degree of exposure to the global American youth culture influence in the country though movies, television, music and the Internet.

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In contrast, those who use fully incorporated English loans are generally the so-called ‘less modern rural youngsters’ who attempt to be ‘cool’ (in-fashioned and modern), but who clearly lack the exposure to American English typically found in urban areas. Because English loans are generally used by younger people, when older people purposely use them to sound younger, they trigger humor or being ridiculed. This is because such a usage violates the tacit sociolinguistic norms of loanwords in the speech community. It is particularly for this reason that many Senegalese comedians regularly use these linguistic variables to produce humor.

3. Monolingual and hybrid lexicalized loans
Hybrid and monolingual lexicalized forms typically consist of the fusion of several different lexical units to form one new lexical item. This process is common in Wolof. While some of these lexicalized forms result from the normal incorporation processes of foreign loans into the Wolof linguistic system, others are constructed by speakers for particular social reasons. Posner (1997: 193) indicated that such lexicalizations
represent efforts of a culture to give a name to a concept, which it deems necessary. The following items exemplify these types of lexicalized items commonly found in Wolof.

These monolingual lexicalized items are usually the oldest loanwords that have entered the Wolof language. As such, they are regarded as Wolof words by most monolingual Wolof speakers. Examples 1 through 6 are fusions of several normally used structures in French. The structures ‘il faut que’, ‘pot de chambre’, ‘en pagaille’,
‘grande place’, ‘de l’huile’ et ‘la craie’ in examples 1 through 6 are all grammatical structures in standard French. In contrast, examples 7 and 8 result from the merger of two elements that cannot be combined in French. The adverb ‘surtout’ and the noun ‘perte’ do not take the French adverbial suffix ‘-ment’ which is the equivalent of the Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community...

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English morpheme ‘-ly’ in ‘nicely’ (normally pronounced as [mã] in standard French and [ma] by uneducated Wolof speakers). Similarly, the example 9 consists of the combination of two French elements ‘comme’ (as/like) and the relative pronoun ‘que’ (that). This combination is ungrammatical in standard French. While examples 1 through 9 are mostly used by Wolof speakers who are uneducated in French, they also occur in the speech of educated people. The lexicalized Arabic loans are all based on grammatical Arabic structures and are equally used by all Wolof speakers in the country. The diffusion of these monolingual lexicalized Arabic loans across social groups in Senegal is likely due to the combination of several factors: 1) These Arabic loans fall within the religious register, 2) they have been in Wolof long before the French loans
(because Islamization preceded colonization in the country), and 3) because of their frequency in Wolof. These monolingual lexicalized loans contrast with hybrid lexicalized loans.

These hybrid lexicalized structures are regularly used in Senegal. The hybrid structures in example 1, 2 and 3 are found in the speech of most Wolof speakers, regardless of their social group or education level. They represent some of the most common hybrid lexical constructions that French loans undergo in Senegal, which typically consist of the suffixation of a Wolof morpheme such as ‘-ando’ (to do something together), ‘-u’ (oneself), ‘-aat’ (to do something again) to a French verb stem.

Similarly, the use of the double hybrid relative pronoun ‘queni’ or ‘nique’ (which consist of the French relative pronoun ‘que’ + the Wolof relative pronoun ‘ni’ also pronounced as ‘ne’) is commonly found in the country, particularly in urban areas. In rural areas, the Wolof relative pronoun ‘ni’or ‘ne’ is normally used. This is because urban areas are naturally more influenced by French. As the examples show, some
hybrid structures are constructed by adding the English morphemes ‘-man’ to Wolof nouns, others are formed by adding the French adverbial suffix ‘-ment’ to English adjectives or by adding a Wolof suffix to a French or English word. It is worth

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noting that all the lexicalized structures involving English are exclusively found in the speech of the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youngsters. In sum, despite their different sociolinguistic implications, lexicalization (monolingual and hybrid lexicalizations) is one way that Wolof accommodates foreign words, constructs, and artifacts so that they can function effectively in the language and the speech community."...

4. Semantic & grammatical changes, syllable truncations and calques
Loanwords in the Senegalese speech community undergo various transformations such as semantic and grammatical changes, deletion of syllables, calques etc. While some of these patterns are part of loanwords’ incorporation processes in Wolof, others are used as sociolinguistic tools to indicate group membership. The following examples illustrate these types of changes and their sociolinguistic implications in the Senegalese speech community.

3 comments:

Notice that these papers on loanwords in Wolof were written or published in 2000 and 2006.

I've not found any more up to date information or comments on this subject. Given the likely increase of internet use in Senegal, I suspect that there's also been an increase in the number of English language loan words in Senegal.

If that's so, I wonder if those who use English language loan words in that nation are still viewed the same way as noted in these articles.

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